This “Big City Lion” is featured in a new series by German photographer Julia Marie Werner.

When a homeless dog goes roaming the streets of Spain, he probably hopes to find a scrap of food or perhaps a kind human willing to give him a treat. Instead, what one homeless dog found was a photographer who saw his inner lion, adopted him, took him home with her to Germany and helped him channel that lion in a new photo series called Grossstadtlöwe (Big City Lion, according to Feature Shoot).

Julia Marie Werner was in Spain on business when she saw the dog, now called Tschikko Leopold Von Werner, digging for food in a trashcan. The two locked eyes when a man approached to scare the dog away, Feature Shoot reports. Werner told Feature Shoot that she thinks Tschikko may have been thrown from a car and is fearful at times.

He grew to trust Werner and now travels with her, and has since become the subject of her photo shoots… complete with lion mane.